I received the following email a few days ago:

Subject: Tax scams, 3000 African-American Clients

In the Charlotte, North Carolina area many African-American individuals trusted a lady by the name of Anewa Tiari-El. She was paid thousands of dollars to file the so-called 1040X that enabled tax payers to receive large refunds based upon the Individual Master Files.

The IRS did send out these refunds to many taxpayers. However, Ms. Tiari-El had the clients sign a power of attorney which enabled her to have the checks transferred to her business account. Thus, she did not give many of the clients the monies.

When the matter hit the news it was publicized as if she was fraudulent and the IRS closed down her office. Now several thousands of African-American families are being penalized and their present taxes have been affected.

It appears that this lady did tap into something. Presently, the IRS is still sending out these refund checks.

Is there any hope for the truth to come out and how can these families be assisted?

Would anyone be interested in this matter?

Thanks,

Nadira A.

My response:

Nadira:

This sounds like the infamous slavery reparations tax credit scam.

IRS is not still sending out those refund checks. Some did slip out early in the life of this scheme; but not any more.

I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I have no sympathy for those people foolish enough to pay someone to obtain these “too good to be true” refunds. Their greed and gullibility led them into a useful and possibly expensive lesson that I hope they learned.

You can see more info on this from IRS:

IRS Issues Consumer Alert on Slavery Reparation Scams

IRS Updates the ‘Dirty Dozen’ for 2003: Agency Warns of 12 Common Scams – Number 4 of the Dirty Dozen Tax Scams

Slavery Reparation Scam

Kerry Kerstetter